We traveled 1,158 miles around Japan between different destinations where we laid our weary heads.
We used 11 types of transportation (in chronological order):
1. Plane
2. Car
3. Subway
4. Train
5. Bus
6. River boat
7. Light rail
8. Shinkansen bullet train
9. Ferry
10. Cable car
11. Gondola
Plus, of course, our feet. We walked 131 miles over the last 25 days. On our first full day in Tokyo, we walked 9.4 miles – our record thanks to pumping adrenaline. Our average was 5.2 miles each day – powered by coffee, green tea, and lots of sweets.
Here are some of our favorite Japanese phrases we used along the way:
1. Cho oishi (very delicious)
2. Arigato gozoimas (thank you very much) – plus okini, the variation used in the Kansai region dialect
3. Sumimasen (excuse me)
4. Ohayo gozoimas (good morning) / konichiwa (hello) / konbanwa (good evening)
5. Hai (yes)
6. Watashiwa Lauren/Hannah-des (my name is…)
7. Sakura (cherry blossoms)
8. Hanami (picnicking under the cherry blossoms)
9. Cake set (this isn’t Japanese but a staple nonetheless)
10. Makanai (this is the name for the person who cooks food for the maiko and geiko — aka geishas – in their boardinghouse. Not a seemingly useful term for us, but this show on Netflix was a constant companion of the trip.)
There were four types of noodles we ate often:
1. Ramen (4x)
2. Soba (twice)
3. Udon (once)
4. Konjac (these are gluten-free and made from yams. Only counts as 0.5 – only Lauren ate these, not Hannah, because why)
New foods we tried (much to Lauren’s chagrin, this list does not include any new dishes we tried because there were far too many to count – only ingredients/plants/animals that were entirely new to us):
1. Burdock (a veggie that is somewhere between a parsnip, white asparagus, and an artichoke)
2. Whale (not a fan)
3. Sea urchin (delicious — like pâté but seafood)
4. Conch (blegh)
5. Eel (half-way – new for Hannah, not for Lauren. Yum)
6. Cherry blossoms and cherry blossom leaves (fun for the vibe)
7. Shiso, aka perilla (an herb that’s kind of a cross between mint and basil – Hannah was a fan, Lauren was not)
8. Lots of other fish and seafood that could not possibly be identified at this time
